Field
This disclosure relates to wireless energy transfer and methods for controlling the operation and performance of electric vehicle wireless power transmission systems.
Description of the Related Art
Energy or power may be transferred wirelessly using a variety of known radiative, or far-field, and non-radiative, or near-field, techniques as detailed, for example, in commonly owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/613,686 published on May 6, 2010 as US 2010/010909445 and entitled “Wireless Energy Transfer Systems,” U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/860,375 published on Dec. 9, 2010 as 2010/0308939 and entitled “Integrated Resonator-Shield Structures,” U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/222,915 published on Mar. 15, 2012 as 2012/0062345 and entitled “Low Resistance Electrical Conductor,” U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/283,811 published on Oct. 4, 2012 as US 2012/024898 and entitled “Multi-Resonator Wireless Energy Transfer for Lighting,” the contents of which are incorporated by reference.
Recharging the batteries in full electric vehicles currently requires a user to plug a charging cord into the vehicle. The many disadvantages of using a charging cord, including the inconvenience, weight, and awkwardness of the cord, the necessity of remembering to plug-in and un-plug the vehicle, and the potential for cords to be stolen, disconnected, damaged, etc., have motivated makers of electric vehicles to consider wireless recharging scenarios. Using a wireless power transmission system to recharge an electric vehicle has the advantage that no user intervention may be required to recharge the vehicle's batteries. Rather, a user may be able to position a vehicle near a source of wireless electricity and then an automatic control system may recognize that a vehicle in need of charge is present and may initiate, sustain, and control the delivery of wireless power as needed.
One of the advantages of wireless recharging of electric vehicles is that the vehicles may be recharged using a variety of wireless power techniques while conforming to a variety of performance criteria. The variety of available wireless power techniques and acceptable performance criteria may present challenges to system designers who may like to provide for interoperability between different wireless sources and wireless devices (usually integrated in the vehicles) and at the same time differentiate their products by offering certain enhanced features. Therefore there is a need for an electric vehicle wireless power system control architecture that may ensure safe, efficient and reliable performance that meets certain industry performance standards and that offers designers and users of the end-system the opportunity to customize their systems to offer differentiated and enhanced features to the drivers of their vehicles.